New writers group discussion

First topic message reminder :

Ladies, perhaps you should form a private "writers' group". It would have a simple set of rules and provide each member with valued feedback and mutual responsibilities. The most important rule is secrecy. You should all agree that everyone's submissions will be kept private, thereby providing protection against publishing problems and possible theft of ideas. Once a core group establishes the working rules, then all future new members should be by unanimous vote of existing active members. Here are the rules my writers' group uses:

1. Membership: By invitation only and new members must be voted in by a unanimous vote of existing members in good standing.

2. Submission Activity: Each member agrees to submit one chapter between 10 and 25 pages for critique by all other members. The Chapter will be submitted on MS Word, double spaced and typed in a standard 12 pt font like Arial or Times New Roman. Obviously, spell check and grammar check should be completed before submitting.

3. Submission rules: Each member's chapter must be submitted to the group before the last day of any month, for review during the following month. If a member can not meet the end of the month deadline, then he/she forfeits the opportunity until the next month's deadline. Repeated failure to submit (two consecutive months) is grounds for dismissal from the group by unanimous vote of the remaining members, although the group can vote to allow longer absences if requested.

4. Review expectations: Each member is responsible to produce a thorough "review" of all the other members' chapters before the end of the month after submission. Such review will include, but not be limited to, SPaG, plot development, characterization, sub-plot, research, believability, etc. Since the group is limited to a maximum of eight members, that means each member will be completing no more than seven reviews over a four week period.

5. Security: All members agree to keep chapter submissions absolutely secret. In addition, any ideas derived from another member's writing must not be pursued without the written consent of the writing member.

That's it. Simple set of rules geared to promoting writing and providing feedback to each other. In my group, one member is a romance novelist with a dozen books on the market. Another member is a non-fiction, advice columnist with one book on the market and a regular column. As you know, I write sci-fi and action-adventure fiction. The point is, we offer each other interesting feedback from widely varying backgrounds. At first, I thought the diversity would be a problem but I quickly learned that both the romance novelist and the advice writer love sci-fi. Likewise, I find their "genres" interesting and I've learned that writing is writing, regardless of the subject matter.

me too!

This is a great way to get closer as a group and help each other's talents. A push in the right direction(s) should help everybody. I like the idea.